[This is a summary of responses to the original posting, no.
2104, which
which appears below, followed by responses.]
From: John Abbott <abbottjp_at_appstate.edu
In FY98/99, this library (attached to a Carnegie
Comprehensive university of 13,000 students and faculty) saw
a decline in many traditional use measures including gate
entrance counts and number of photocopies made. The latter
measure declined about 20% and no new copying alternatives
are available nearby.
These numbers may be an aberration, but I am beginning to
take them as a clear indicator that the library's growing
number of electronic sources, particularly fulltext, allow
students and faculty to satisfy perceived (!) needs outside
the building. We currently subsidize in-library printing
from our workstations. If we begin charging for printing, I
suspect there would be an even more dramatic fall in the
gate count as patrons use personal printers or capture text
to their mega-gigabyte hard drives.
What do your IPEDS use measure numbers look like this year
vs. the last?
I'll summarize answers to remove attribution.
==============================================
Responses
[For postings with institutional data, I removed
attribution. I've rounded figures to nearest thousand.]
1. Public Comprehensive of 11,000 largely undergraduate
students reports a generally rising gate count trend
following introduction of full-text online.
1996-1997 322,859
1997-1998 393,204
1998-1999 386,844
2. Public Comprehensive, 12,500 students, reports no drop
in circ or gate count, but sufficient drop in ref.
transactions to warrant reduced desk staffing levels. Dorms
only recently wired.
3. Public Comprehensive, 4,000 students reports "use
statistics for
circulation, and reference have declined, but our use is up.
We do provide
free printing which may be a big incentive to come to the
library. We
subscribe to many electronic databases and many of these are
full text; a
lot of our professors require heavy use of web-based
resources, yet we have
found that web material is not always the best resource
available.
I do not know what the eventual outcome is, but I am
proceeding cautiously
with purchasing material, particularly big ticket items."
4. Public ARL & Land-Grant reports photocopying down 11%,
and gate counts up
1997-1998 1,074,000
1998-1999 1,336,000
but Ref transactions are down:
97/98: 88,000
98/99: 63,000
as is Circ.
97/98 375,000
98/99 266,000
5. Private ARL reports gate counts up, but remarks that
library is renovated and has liberalized policy on use of
the library by other local schools.
=======================================
Responses to the List, #1
From: Rick Anderson <rick_anderson_at_uncg.edu
Before you conclude that those needs are being satisfied
outside of
the building, you might want to see if it's possible to
analyze patterns of
printer use. I wonder if what's taking the place of
photocopying isn't so much
outside use as inside use -- students printing up articles
right there in
the library. In this sense, full-text databases themselves
offer the
equivalent of a new photocopying resource. Of course, that
may be something you've
already taken into consideration.
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
==========================================
Response #2
From: Lou Pitschmann <alap_at_macc.wisc.edu
Very interesting observations. I find your reference to the
"death of print
collections outside the humanities" apropos, even if many in
1999
would/will find it threatening. The rapidly increasing move
by users away
from print to electronic access is a generational phenomenon
that will only
continue to increase over the next few years as today's
middle school and
high school students enroll in college.
While I don't have the latest stats, we in Wisconsin are
seeing very
similar trends.
You say this information may not be news, but I think what
is news is the
fact that the trend is only increasing, and increasing at
all institutions
regardless of size or geographic location.
Please keep me posted on other findings you might have.
Lou Pitschmann
CDO
U. Wisconsin-Madison
============================================
END
Received on Fri Oct 08 1999 - 17:36:11 EDT